Boring with a big auger

This is the house Daddy built in 1952 with Vernon standing in front of it.

Mom is holding me and next to her is Daddy. The others (from left) are Betty, Grady, Bertha, John and Vernon.

Although Surry-Yadkin Electric, then known as REA, ran the power lines on our road in 1947, we didn't have electricity until our parents, Elder Boyd and Lucy Caudill, moved us into the new house Daddy built in 1952. With no plumbing and seven kids, Daddy built a two-seater outhouse.

Moving from three rooms and a loft into a home with living room, dining room, kitchen, den and two bedrooms downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs, was quite an accomplishment in those days.

Our kitchen contained a new Home Comfort woodstove for cooking. It had a compartment on the end that held and heated water for washing dishes, faces, ears or whatever. Beside the stove was our meal chest, a long wooden box divided into three sections: one for flour, one for corn meal and the other for the wooden dough board used for making biscuits, dumplings, pie crusts, pone cakes or sonkers.

For the first time in my life, I could flip a switch or pull a string and have lights, or tune the radio to the "Grand Ole Opry," or open the Frigidaire to get a glass of cold milk. All this was proof positive that we were truly "boring with a big auger," thanks entirely to our wonderful parents who made all times worth remembering.